Mr. Obama's Commission on Social Security Reform

[lib2DaBone]

Pete Peterson Consultant to Commission

Peter George Peterson (born June 5, 1926) is an American businessman, investment banker, fiscal conservative, author, and politician whose most prominent political position was as United States Secretary of Commerce from February 29, 1972, to February 1, 1973 under Richard Nixon. He was the Chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell from 1963 to 1971, and Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers from 1973 to 1984. He was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations until retiring on June 30, 2007, after being named chairman emeritus. He co-founded the private equity firm, the Blackstone Group. In 2008, he was ranked 149th on the "Forbes 400 Richest Americans" with a net worth of $2.8 Billion. In 2008, he established The Peter G. Peterson Foundation with a $1 billion endowment
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Members of President Obama's deficit commission huddled behind closed doors Wednesday despite pleas from the left and right that they hold all their meetings in public.

The move only heightens suspicion that rather than forging a national consensus on future spending priorities, the commission's work will consist of backroom dealings in which members of the Washington aristocracy find high-minded excuses for cutting the social safety net.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/obamas-fiscal-commission_n_565121.html


Commission Members
Co-Chairmen:
Sen. Alan Simpson. Former Republican Senator from Wyoming.
Erskine Bowles, Chief of Staff to President Clinton


Executive Director:
Bruce Reed, Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Clinton


Commissioners:
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA 31)
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI 4)
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)
David Cote, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell International
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Ann Fudge, Former CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX 5)
Alice Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute and former Director, Office of Management & Budget
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL 9)
Rep. John Spratt (D-SC 5)
Andrew Stern, President, Service Employees International Union

[undergroundpanther]

1. These people are fools

If SS gets gutted because of rich people's insatiable Greed,ALL The excuses high minded or not will put their heads in a basket.

[Syrinx]

2. the solution to social security to me seems pretty obvious

Eliminate the cap on taxing income. It's only 90-something thousand dollars, if I recall correctly. Eliminate the cap. Ideally, the tax would be progressive, instead of regressive, which it currently is. But a so-called "flat" tax would be better than it is now. I haven't run the numbers, but it might even raise enough revenue to make social security an universal pension.

[Hannah Bell]

5. no, it's $106.8K, & is raised regularly to cover 90% of all wages.

Lifting the cap = trojan horse.

SS currently has about 3 trillion dollars in its trust fund. That's 6 years of social security payments right there. All by itself, without collecting a dime of social security taxes.

The trust fund + social security taxes at current rates, under conservative assumptions of economic growth of less than 2% per year (1.7-1.8%), will fund SS into 2040's -- by which time most of the boomers will be thoroughly dead.

Even then, even under these conservative assumptions (which have, historically, *underestimated* SS's finances, on average), SS will continue to be able to pay out more than 75% of scheduled benefits -- which would be, in fact (given the benefit increases built into the schedule), *more* in real terms than recipients get today. And could be raised to 100% of scheduled benefits by a tax hike of <2% - <$100/year.

you want to give the government even *more* money NOW to "borrow" & hand out as income tax breaks to the rich? WHY?

Make them pay back what they already "borrowed" before you give them more.

there is no "crisis" but that theft by the rich.

[WCGreen]

9. Well Stated....

[Syrinx]

10. what? when did I advocate income tax breaks for the rich?

I want the rich to pay more income tax, and I want that money to be used to strengthen and expand social security and maybe health-care and other programs. And "capital gains" should be subject to said tax, in my opinion.

[Hannah Bell]

11. you advocated lifting the cap. that has nothing to do with income tax.

and as i said, there's already 3 trillion in the trust fund, enough to last thirty more years.

the top 1% got a trillion in tax breaks during the bush years alone.

so they need to repay what they borrowed before you start changing the design of ss, that's worked for 70 years.

There's no need for more SS taxes. There's a need to repay the trust fund.

Only wage workers pay SS taxes. Income taxes are mostly paid by capital. Capital "borrowed" over a trillion from wage workers. They need to pay it back.

Raising the cap on wage workers = bait & switch, so they never have to pay it back.

[Syrinx]

12. are you saying that salaried workers don't pay that tax?

If that is true, you have told me something I didn't know.

[Hannah Bell]

13. salary is wages. lump sum wages v. hourly wages, big deal.

you're a wage worker either way.

but stock options, capital gains, interest income, profits etc. - aren't wages. they're capital income and aren't subject to social security tax.

there is no reason to lift the cap on social security taxes except to give the capitalist class more money to steal.

[Syrinx]

14. I'm in favor of changing that

All income should be treated the same under tax law.

[Hannah Bell]

15. no, it shouldn't. social security is funded by workers, for workers.

that's its strength. that's what creates the solidarity that made ss the "third rail". all workers pay, all workers benefit, & payments in are in reasonable proportion to what one gets back. the best-paid workers can't claim they fund everyone else because of the cap. that keeps them reasonably satisfied. the worst-paid workers get back a bit more proportionally than they put in. disabled workers & surviving dependents get something too.

the original design of the program kept it sound & politically invulnerable for 70 years -- the longest-lived, most financially sound workers' retirement income program in history, in any country.

once capital can claim they're paying for it, they own it & can cut it, like they cut welfare, like they're cutting everything else -- by playing the "we're paying for those lazy people" card.

that's the trojan horse you seem to be all-too-ready to accept.

beware of greeks bearing gifts.

you'd do better to get them to give out some raises.

[Syrinx]

16. they play that card every day already

I'm not sure what you're getting at, but I'm in favor of the people seizing control of the government, and if that involves taking some of the billionaires' money away from them, I'm all for it.

Tax the rich, to ensure a fair society.

[Hannah Bell]

17. i have no idea what you mean by "that card". since the government's not likely

to be "seized" anytime soon, i would prefer to have a secure social security system, thanks all the same.

i'm all in favor of taxing the rich. via the income tax. which will provide the money to pay back the trust fund.

there's no advantage WHATSOEVER to the course you're advocating.

except for the capitalists.

[Syrinx]

18. I think we are having a failure of communication

I think we should have more taxes on the fat capitalist bastards in order to promote more equality.

That's about as simple as I can make it.

EDIT: Super-rich fucks should have to pay the same rate as the poor guy, on ALL his money. Not just the first hundred grand.

[Hannah Bell]

19. no, you want to lift the cap on social security so it can be demagogued as "welfare".

while capital continues to steal our excess tax payments.

a course that's guaranteed to destroy the entire program.

that's about as simple as i can make it.

i told you, social security is sound for thirty years or more with the trust fund.

you're so hot on taxing the rich, but for some reason you don't want to raise their income taxes & pay back the trust fund, you just want to raise the ss cap & commingle the funds.

it's completely senseless unless one's aim is to destroy social security.

[Syrinx]

20. thanks for the story about Mark Twain

BTW.

[Syrinx]

21. If I said I didn't want to raise the income tax on the rich...

I must have misspoke. I don't think I ever said that. But if I did, it was a mistake.

[Hannah Bell]

22. fine; that's all that needs to be done. despite the relentless propaganda from

finance capital. telling us the cap needs to be raised, benefits need to be cut, & the retirement age needs to be raised.

they're all lies. because capital wants a bigger cut of the pie. period.

oh, yeah, & finance capital wants you to fund their losses in the global casino so they won't be left holding the bag.

[Catherina]

3. We're hosed n/t

[Scuba]

4. Who picked this bunch??? ...

... You've got eight Democrats (including Bowles, Reed and Stern) and nine Republicans (counting Cote, Fudge and Rivlin).

Among the worst, you've got Paul Ryan, a right-wing nutcase trying to get healthcare reform repealed. This is not the 'hope and change' I was hoping for.

Where's Richard Reich? Where's anybody that really gives a damn about the American people?

[TheKentuckian]

7. It's worse than it appears. Schakowsky, Stern, and Durbin are the only

non anti-tax nutters/free marketeers and Durbin is talking "bleeding heart liberals" must sacrifice stuff.

Those D's don't mean a thing either.

[RC]

23. Definitely worse than it appears. Kent Contad is a DINO.

Look at what he did to Single Payer Health Care. I wonder how much he will get paid to help sink Social Security?

And no mention of any wars!

[Gaedel]

6. Commission Report

I can already write the report for the commission and save them a lot of time.

REPORT
1. Raise Income
2. Reduce Outgo
END OF REPORT

[Hannah Bell]

8. and the report will be bullshit, because social security has no "crisis" but the theft of the trust

fund by the top 1%.

Here's my report:

Raise your income taxes so you can pay back the trillion-plus you "borrowed" from the rest of us, you arrogant twits.